108 



THE CLIMATE. 



contemptible mockeries since. Not that the people are getting better, 

 but that their love of gain is swallowing up even their love of display. 

 Eivero speaks of the wretched condition of society, and tells of drunk- 

 enness, gaming, assassination, and bad faith, as of things of common 

 occurrence. 



I met with much kindness on the part of the few gentlemen whose 

 acquaintance I made, particularly on that of the sub-prefect, who lodged 

 me in his house, and, by his frank and sincere manner, made me 

 feel at home ; and I do not say that men here are individually bad ; 

 but only speak of the philosophical fact that mining, as an occupation, 

 has a tendency to debase men's characters, and destroy those sensibili- 

 ties and affections that smooth and soften the rugged path of life. 

 Moreover, I don't speak half so badly of them as they do of them- 

 selves ; for one, if he were to seek it, might easily hear that every 

 individual in the Cerro was a rascal. 



The climate of this place is exceedingly uncomfortable, and I should 

 suppose unhealthy. I could not sleep between sheets, but preferred 

 "the wollens," with an abundance of them. Eivero states the mean 

 temperature, during the months of July, August, and September, at 

 44° in the day, and 35° at night. In these months there is an abund- 

 ance of snow and hail, which lowers the thermometer considerably ; 

 and even without these it goes down to 30° and 28° in August. From 

 the middle of October to the end of April the climate is insupportable 

 from the rains, tempests and lightnings, which almost every year cause 

 damage. There is a period of fine weather from the middle of Decem- 

 ber to the middle of January, called, in the poetic language and reli- 

 gious turn of thought of the Spaniards, El verano del nino, or the sum- 

 mer of the child, from its happening about Christmas. The streams, 

 which are fed from the rains of this country, invariably stop rising, and 

 fall a little after this period. The temperature is so rigorous here that 

 the hens do not hatch, nor the llamas procreate ; and women, at the 

 period of their confinement, are obliged to seek a more genial climate, 

 or their offspring will not live. 



Persons recently arrived, particularly if they have weak lungs, suffer 

 from affections of the chest and difficulty of breathing. The miners 

 suffer paralysis from the sudden changes of temperature to which they 

 are exposed in and out of the mines, and from inhaling the fumes of 

 the mercury in the operation of distilling. Those who suffer in this 

 way are called azogados, from azogue, (quicksilver.) The most com- 

 mon diseases are pleurisies, rheumatisms, and a putrid fever called 



